Upholstered chair



Sept. 6, 1960 K. SCHAFER UPHOLSTERED CHAIR Filed Jan. 28, 1958 any United States Patent I UPHOL'STERED CHA-IR Konrad Schafer, Frankenau, Germany, assignor to Gebriider Thonet Aktiengesellschaft; F'rankenberg (Ed'er), Hessen, Germany FiledJan. 28,, 1958, Ser. N0..713,077

Claims priority, application Germany June 21, 1957 4 Claims. (ELISE-191)- The invention relates to. a chair having a seat frame and a separate leg-supporting frame, and more particularly to a chair having a seat frame and disengageable leg-supporting frame.

It is an object. of the invention to provide a chair which can be readily disassembled for storage or transportation.

It is another object of the invention to provide a chair in which the legs are mounted on a separate frame and disengageable as a unit from the seat of the chair.

It is furthermore an object of the invention to provide a chair having a seat frame and a leg-supporting frame engageable to and disengageable from the seat frame without the use of tools and without separate fasteners.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understoodby reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. l is a longitudinal section of a chair showing a preferred embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2 is a top plan of onehalf of a partly assembled embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail of the upper left-hand portion of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of the upper right-hand portion of Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in Fig. 1 a chair having a seat frame 1 of bent wood, and a separate legsupporting frame comprising a bottom plate 3 and reinforcing ribs 4. Holes are drilled through plate 3 and ribs 4 for mounting the legs 2. These holes are inclined at an angle corresponding to the inclination which it is desired to give to the legs. The location of the reinforcing ribs 4 also is determined by the position of the legs.

The reduced sections 2a of legs 2 are forced into the tightly fitting holes in bottom plate 3 and ribs 4 and are fastened there in the usual manner with glue, by wedges, screws or the like. After the legs are fastened to the leg frame, the assembled leg frame unit may be finished by staining or in any other manner. If it is desired to upholster the seat, this may be done separately at the same time.

As illustrated in Fig. 3, the front end of reinforcing ribs 4- is provided with a tenon or pinlike projecting member which engages a correspondingly shaped groove in seat frame 1. As can be seen from Fig. 2, the width of the groove is made to correspond approximately to the width of the projecting member 7. The bottom plate 3 engages a mating groove 9 in seat frame 1.

At its rear end, the reinforcing rib 4- carries a leaf spring 5, one end of which is fastened to the upper side of rib 4 as best seen from Fig. 4. The free end of spring 5 is crimped into a semi-circular bulge and is bent downward. The crimped end of spring 5 resiliently engages a groove or recess 6 of a shape mating the crimped end of the spring 5 when the seat frame and the leg-supporting frame are assembled. The semi-circular shape of the. crimped end. of spring 5 facilitates insertion of the leg-supporting frame into the seat frame, the spring yielding under the pressure exerted by seat frame 1 against the inclined portions of the crimped end.

An opening 6a which is narrower than the width of spring 5 is provided in seat frame 1 to give access to the spring 5 so that it may be pushed back towards the reinforcing rib 4 to permit removal of the leg-supporting frame from the seat frame 1. In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4, access opening 6a is provided on the underside of seat frame 1 and a corresponding opening 8 is formed in the bottom plate 3. A nail, a pencil, a screwdriver or any other suitable elongated object may be inserted through access opening 6a to push spring 5 out of groove 6 and to permit the leg-supporting frame to be disengaged from the seat frame.

It is apparent that the tenon or pin-like projecting members 7 may be replaced by rigid members of many other shapes, and that resilient means. other than a leaf spring 5 may be employed either exclusively or in co operation with one rigid. interlocking element or a plurality thereof. It is furthermore understood that while the present invention has been illustrated by an embodiment having male interlocking members fastened to the leg-supporting frame and engaging mating recesses in the seat frame, some or all of the male interlocking members may be fastened to the seat frame and engage corre sponding recesses in the leg-supporting frame.

The chair of the invention is adapted to be stored or shipped with the leg-supporting frame disengaged from the seat frame to which a back and arm rests may be attached in the customary manner. It is apparent that the chair thus disassembled will occupy only approximately one half of the shipping or storage space required by a fully assembled chair of equal dimensions. The chair can be simply assembled by even an unskilled person by first engaging the pins or tenons 7 in their mating recesses in the seat frame and then pressing the leg-supporting frame into place whereby the springs 5 abut against the edge of seat frame 1 and are pushed back against ribs 4 to permit the leg-supporting frame to drop into place whereupon the crimped ends of springs 5 interlock their corresponding recesses or grooves 6.

The chair can be disassembled with equal ease by inserting suitable elongated objects behind springs 5 to displace them from recesses 6 whereupon the leg-supporting frame can be lifted out of the seat frame 1 on the side opposite rigid tenons 7 until ribs 4 clear the frame 1 and the tenons or pinlike projecting members 7 can be disengaged by a sliding motion from the corresponding recesses in the seat frame 1.

It is generally preferred to arrange rigid interlocking members along the front side of the frames and to employ resilient interlocking members along the other sides or along one of the remaining other sides, but it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that many variations and permutations are possible.

When the disengageable interlocking means of the invention is used for fastening a separate leg-supporting frame to an upholstered seat frame, the upholstering process is simplified in important respects. It is apparent that the seat and the back and arm rests which may be attached thereto may be completely upholstered while the leg-supporting frame is detached thus reducing the weight and bulk of material that has to be handled by the upholsterer. It is an additional advantage of the arrange ment of the invention, that the bottom row of upholstery nails may be located inside groove 9 on seat frame 1 where it is completely covered and hidden by bottom plate 3 after final assembly of the chair.

In the large-scale manufacture of the chairs of the invention, various types and colors of chair tops may be built up on uniform seat frames and may then be equipped with legs of various shapes or finishes mounted on interchangeable supporting frames. The advantages in inventory control and other stages of manufacturing and sale of the chairs of the invention accruing from such ready interchangeability are evident. It is possible for a furniture dealer to satisfy a c-lients demand for special combinations of leg frames with seat frames carrying backs and arm rests without maintaining an excessive inventory of chairs.

It should be understood of course that the foregoing disclosure relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do not constitute departure from the spirit and scope of the invention set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An upholstered chair comprising a ring-shaped seat frame which is open at the top and at the bottom, the upper opening serving for spring accommodation, a legsupporting frame removable as a unit, said leg-supporting frame being arranged below the seat frame for attachment thereto and comprising a plate capable of covering the opening at the bottom of said seat frame in assembled position, reinforcing ribs on said plate, said ribs and said plate having registering holes at spaced locations from the sides of said seat frame and being inclined with respect to the vertical plane for mounting the chair legs at an inclination, and a plurality of releasable interlocking elements on said ribs for lateral attachment of said legsupporting frame to the sides of said seat frame, said interlocking elements consisting of projecting members capable of engagement with mating receiving recesses at the inner sides of said seat frame, at least a part of said interlocking elements being resilient for easy removal from said recesses;

2. An upholstered chair as claimed in claim 1, wherein some of the interlocking elements are leaf springs each of which has one crimped end formed into a bulge which engages with a mating recess in the seat frame.

3. An upholstered chair as claimed in claim 1, said interlocking elements comprising a plurality of spaced pins fastened to the one end of said leg supporting frame and a plurality of spaced resilient projecting members fastened to the other end of said supporting frame, the seat frame being formed with mating recesses adapted to engage respectively said pins and said resilient members.

4. The upholstered chair as claimed in claim 2, wherein the seat frame has an opening located below the recess for the crimped end of the leaf spring, which opening is narrower in width than saidspn'ng and permits access by an elongate object for pushing back said spring from said recess into a disengaged position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 262,543 Heywood et al Aug. 8, 1882 515,382 Vankirk et a1 Feb. 27, 1894 1,133,254 Backus Mar. 30, 1915 1,875,906 Zarobsky Sept. 6, 1932 2,130,536 Chaifee Sept. 20, 1938 2,132,318 Pilliod et al. Oct. 4, 1938 2,296,451 Roberts Sept. 22, 1942 2,474,668 Herbolsheimer June 28, 1949 2,573,984 Parker et a]. Nov. 6, 1951 2,692,983 Eisenkramer Oct. 26, 1954 2,694,443 Cohen Nov. 16, 1954 2,706,518 Fleischer Apr. 19, 1955 2,851,090 Hamilton Sept. 9, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 518,158 Canada Nov. 8, 1955 747,524 France Mar. 28, 1933 

